The present invention relates to containers for retaining a cleaning liquid for cleaning dental or medical instruments, dentures, optical lenses, eyeglasses, or the like, specifically in ultrasonic cleaning devices, and to a method for ultrasonically cleaning such items.
Cleaning of dental and medical instruments by means of ultrasonic vibrations is well known. Normally such instruments are placed into beakers made of glass, which are in turn placed on a tray or plate and filled with a cleaning solution, such as a detergent or the like. The tray or plate is inserted into an ultrasonic container which contains a bath. The container is equipped with an ultrasonic transducer which agitates the bath in the container. The vibrations cause the glass beaker to vibrate which causes the cleaning solution to erosively clean dirt from the immersed instruments. Ultrasonic devices of the foregoing type have been known. One of them is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,236.
The problems with such otherwise satisfactory retaining beakers are that they can easily break, they should be regularly cleaned, and they require significant space in the ultrasonic container because the beakers should be spaced apart from each other. Additionally, specific holders to support the glass beakers must be provided within the ultrasonic container.
When it is desired to clean dentures, heretofore, the dentures are placed in a similar beaker and a special denture cleaning fluid is poured into the beaker. The beaker is then inserted in a holder in an ultrasonic cleaner. The ultrasonic cleaning device typically includes its own liquid bath which is utilized in the ultrasonic device as a load to prevent the ultrasonic device from harm should there not by any items being cleaned.
As in the case of dental or medical instruments the beaker for the dentures takes a lot of room, must constantly be cleaned, has a tendency to break, and the ultrasonic device can only hold one or two beakers since they must be supported in a holder.
Accordingly, there is need for a disposable container for the cleaning of dental or medical instruments, dentures, or the like, which can be used in conjunction with an ultrasonic device.